2002 2.5 litre, manual shift: tonight the battery light came on and remained on for the span of a short drive. Mindful of previous threads on this, when I stopped the car I touch-tested the negative and positive cables. The negative cable was just warm, as was everything else in the engine compartment, but the + cable was burning hot.
I'd just like confirmation that this cable needs replacement - correct? As a point of information, on two subsequent legs of this short trip the battery light did not illuminate but the + cable was still hotter than the negative. Comments?
Does anyone have the current part number (there must be a pun in that) for the + cable?. Thanks in advance!

 

When I had my battery cables off for an unrelated reason, I found much corrosion inside the + cable. It was quite hard, and I might not have recognized it as such had I not scratched thru to bright metal as I attempted to clean it with my standard post cleaner. I really had to bear down to get that stuff off of there. These high resistance areas are the type of things that create heat as too much juice tries to flow thru too little metal to metal cross sectional area. After this my battery light illumination has been greatly diminished.
Take care you understand all the ramifications of disconnecting your battery before you do tho. Wipers, windows, door locks, and your radio, among other things, may have to be reconfigured to get everything behaving the way it was before the disconnect.

 

Thanks for this - I am aware of the items that will need to be reset.

 

sov211, yes, you are correct. The positive battery cable is having issues and needs attention. As for a part number, a lot of members simply pull their old one off, use a second vehicle to go to an auto parts store and find one that matches up to what they have in their hands.

 

Thanks Thermo...now, the replacement procedure: any caveats or tricks? Is access to the alternator an issue?

 

sov211, the only caveat I would say is to make sure you disconnect the battery terminals first before doing anything else. Once the battery is out of the equation, you can rip and roar as much as you want. As for the back of the alternator, I never had the joy of getting in there. Many people have replaced their cables and I don't recall anyone having to remove the alternator. take it slow and steady. You may need to remove the front tray to give you access (possibly the wheel well liner too). But, shouldn't need to unbolt the alternator.

 

Disconnecting the battery is a given - this car has been so reliable over 12 years of ownership that I have not needed to do anything more than basic servicing: oil and filter changes, battery change, etc., so this would be the first real repair (and it is a pretty minor repair) - thanks, as always.